REAGAN GETS BACK INTO HARNESS

George de Lama, Chicago TribuneCHICAGO TRIBUNE

A buoyant President Reagan showed up at the office Thursday for the first time since his cancer surgery, then presided over a Cabinet review of business that must be addressed before he and Congress take their summer vacations.

Walking briskly to work, down the stairs from the White House residential quarters and across the Rose Garden to the Oval Office, a smiling Reagan looked stronger and generally more fit than he did earlier in the week when he returned from Bethesda Naval Hospital.

''I feel fine, great,'' Reagan told reporters, then he kidded about the fact that he had dressed up in a dark blue business suit for the occasion. ''I dressed for you, don`t I get any credit for that?''

Until Thursday, Reagan had worn pajamas when he met briefly each day with chief of staff Donald Regan, Vice President George Bush, national security adviser Robert McFarlane and other aides in his residence.

The President even greeted congressional leaders in a bathrobe Wednesday when he gave them a tour of the upstairs residential area and scolded them for not resolving the federal budget impasse.

Although Reagan did dress up to greet Chinese President Li Xiannian at the White House Tuesday and attended a diplomatic reception that evening, Thursday was the first day he returned to his office.

When reporters mentioned that he had lost most of the vocal raspiness remaining from a postoperative throat tube, Reagan nodded in approval.

''The longer I get away from that tube that was down my throat, the better it will get,'' he said.

The White House discontinued giving daily reports on Reagan`s condition earlier this week. Spokesman Larry Speakes said there was no need to repeat each day that the President was feeling fine.

Although still on a sharply curtailed schedule, Reagan spent an hour and a half in meetings Thursday and an hour in the Oval Office tending to business, Speakes said.

In a 45-minute Cabinet meeting, Reagan reported on his budget session the day before with congressional leaders and asked questions about several current policy issues, Speakes said.

Reagan heard about the outlook for the budget and for his tax-revision plan, the status of work on a farm bill and the Justice Department`s efforts to identify and secure extradition of the hijackers of TWA Flight 847.

Deputy Secretary of State John Whitehead told Reagan the Li visit was

''significant'' and ''a considerable success'' and that the Chinese leader

''appreciated the President`s participation'' in his visit to the White House, Speakes said.

Agriculture Secretary John Block reported on the administration`s problems in trying to fashion a farm bill, while Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese told about the federal grand jury that is viewing subpoenaed TV videotape to identify and indict the TWA hijackers.

Treasury Secretary James Baker assured Reagan that his tax plan is

''right on schedule'' despite growing doubt about its prospects for passage. And Budget Director David Stockman, who will leave his job next week for Wall Street, gave a somewhat gloomy update on the state of the budget.

Reagan probably will travel by helicopter Friday to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., for the weekend. After one more week on a reduced workload, he is to leave Aug. 11 on a three-week vacation at his California ranch.